One of his accusers coming forward with new evidence that contradicts his denials. The mast irof the invisible box challenge. Her gravitydefying skills. On today tuesday, december 5th, 2017. From nbc news this is today live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to today. Thank you for joining us on a tuesday morning. We just really start our scores. 9. 0. We got you. Were going to see you do more later. Were going to find out about this viral craze in a moment, but we want to start with this breaking news overnight. The fastmoving wildfire ripping across Southern California growing to more than 30,000 acres and now threatening the more than 100,000 residents of ventura. Jolene kent is on the scene this morning. Shes had the latest for us. Jo, good morning. Savannah, good morning. The wind swept in and brought in fire, and its destroyed already 150 structures here in the ventura area. One of them is right behind me. You can see it smoldering. It once was a very large apartment complex called the hawaiian village. What were seeing now is thousands of people evacuate. In fact, 27,000 people have already left the area. Reporter overnight a fastmoving wildfire going through california. The flames spreading quickly driven by powerful santa ana winds, including gusts near 60 Miles Per Hour. The inferno forcing thousands of people to flee their homes. Several hundred are under a mandatory evacuation order. We can see the flames burning towards us, so were going to grab the kids and all our stuff, and i dont know where were going to go. Students at Thomas Aquinas college were also evacuated. A number of buildings have already been destroyed. The fire causing widespread power outages. Nearly a quarter of a Million People in the area now without electricity. More than 500 firefighters working through the night trying to beat back the thomas fire. Really all the firefighters can do in winds like this is to get out ahead, evacuate people, and protect structures. In october california suffered its deadliest and most destructive wildfire ever, claiming at least 43 lives. This morning officials are not taking any chances, telling residents to get out while they can. You must abide by these evacuation notices. We saw the disasters and the losses that happened up north in sonoma, and this is a fast, very dangerous moving fire. As more than 500 firefighters fight this blaze, there is zero percent containment right now. What that means is soon firefighters are going up into the air, getting into choppers to fight this fire from above as they try to figure out how to contain it, but the air very much smells and tastes of ash and smoke as families try to figure out where they go next. Evacuation shelters already filling up. Guys. Fastmoving situation there, jo. Thank you. The dean of the house, john conyer conyerss, he is 88 years old. Expected to announce that he will not seek reelection this year. Thats according to the New York Times. Thats what his grandson said. Were expecting an announcement from the elder conyers coming up later on this morning. Conyers has been under intense political pressure to resign his seat completely from Democratic Leaders like House Democratic leader nancy pelosi who says that amid these Sexual Harassment allegations, he should not remain in congress. Multiple women have accused conyers of inappropriate behavior that ranges from sexual suggestions to inappropriate touching, to taking meetings in his underwear with female staffers and being verbally abusive. This, of course, comes as congress itself is racked by these types of allegations. Representative blake farn holt of texas going to pay back a settlement he announced yesterday of 84,000 with a staffer who accused him of Sexual Harassment. This, of course, as congress itself grappling with policies that they havent updated around Sexual Harassment for over 20 years. Hoda. All right, casey. Casey hunt on capitol hill. Casey, thank you. Now to that major win for the Trump Administration in the u. S. Supreme court. On monday the Court Allowed full enforcement of the president s travel ban against residents of six mostly muslim countries. Justice correspondent Pete Williams is at the Supreme Court with more. Pete, good morning. Tell us about the courts ruling. What did they find . Right. It means the administration can now completely enforce the travel ban. Its been on the books the past two months. This is the one that bans or limits travel to the u. S. From chad, iran, libya, somalia, syria, and yemen. Also north korea and some groups in venezuela. Its been only partially enforced since it was announced in late september because its lawsuits. Lower courts said that while a legal challenge is underway, people overseas who have close relatives in the u. S. Would be exempt, but now the Supreme Court has done away with that exemption. That allows the ban to be enforced in full. So what does this mean . Where does this case stand right now . Well, these legal challenges are now before two federal appeals courts. The issue is eventually on its way back here. On monday just two of the justices, ruth baiter ginsberg and sonja sodamayor said they would keep it in place. Thats a sign that this version of the travel ban may survive the legal challenges, when the case is heard back here, which will probably be early next year. While we have you there, theres another case that the court will hear today regarding samesex marriage and religious freedom. Tell us about it. Right. This is a big case that involves a gay couple from colorado. David mullens and charlie craig. They wanted a cake for their wedding reception, but the baker told them no because gay marriage is against his religious principles. He is jack phillips. He says his cakes are works of art, and that requiring him to bake them for samesex weddings would violate his freedom of speech forcing him to express a view as an artist that he disagrees with. Pete, its going to be a closely watched case. Thank you very much. The heated race in alabama on monday. President trump offered his full endorsement to republican candidate roy moore followed shortly thereafter by the rnc. Gabe gutierrez is in fair hope, alabama, with the latest on this back and forth. Gabe, good morning. Hoda, good morning. This is where former white house chief strategist steve bannon will campaign with roy moore later today. This as the Republican National committee two weeks after yanking its resources from alabama is now returning to the state as moore pulls ahead in the polls. Reporter this morning Alabama Senate candidate roy moore fresh off his official endorsement for President Trump is firing back at the Washington Post again. We dated for a brief time, and we kissed with my consent. Reporter after Debbie Wesson gibson, one of several people who told the post moore dated her when he was in his 30s and she was a teenager, offered new evidence that they did know each other. A signed card. I know that youll be a success in anything you do. Roy. Gibson says shes upset that moore called her a liar. I do not know any of these women. Reporter but Moores Campaign now insists the Washington Post is reaching when he stated that he did not know any of the women, ehe was referring to those that accused him of Sexual Assault. Among them, lee corfman who said she was 14 when roy fondled them. I wonder how many manys he doesnt know. Reporter mitt romney calling her a courageous hero and writing roy moore in the u. S. Senate would be a stain on the gop and on the nation. According to a recent cbs news poll, 71 of alabama republicans do not believe the allegations against him. He denies it. He totally denies it. Reporter after previously getting cautious support President Trump is now offering his full backing. Democrats refusal to give even one vote for massive tax cuts is why we need republican roy moore to win in alabama. Moore says he spoke to the president by phone who said go get em, roy. I said that, you know, you support his making America Great again. The white house had previously said that President Trump would not campaign for roy moore here in alabama, but instead he is doing the next best thing. On friday he is holding a rally in pensacola, florida, near the Alabama State line just four days before the special election. Hoda and savannah, back to you. All right. Gabe gutierrez in fair hope, alabama. Gabe, thank you. More fallout over the president s controversial tweet about former National Security advisor mike flynn and whether it could be construed as evidence of obstruction of justice. Its a battle that could find itself at the center of the ongoing russia probe. Nbc National CorrespondentPeter Alexander with the latest. Good morning. Good morning to you. This morning President Trump still under scrutiny. Among the growing chorus of questions what did the president know and when about Michael Flynns lies to the fbi and did the president obstruct justice . His personal lawyer is calling that claim ignorant and arrogant, but at the same time right now there seems to be a growing rift within the president s legal team. Reporter this morning a legal debate over President Trump, former National Security advisor michael flynn, and whether or not the president obstructed justice. I feel badly for general flynn. I feel very badly. There is a credible case of obstruction of justice against donald trump. Reporter it comes after a weekend tweet where mr. Trump said he fired flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the fbi. That statement raising red flags because the agencys then director james comey, says the president later asked him to go easy on flynn. A point the president denies. Rushing to his defense, mr. Trumps personal lawyer, john dowd, saying he authored the president s tweet insisting its ignorant and arrogant to argue the tweet admitted obstruction. Dowd going a step further, arguing a president cannot obstruct justice because he is the countrys chief Law Enforcement officer and has every right to express his view of any case. Overnight the white house special counsel ty cobb distancing himself from that argument, telling nbc news as interesting as the academic discussion may be, i expect a fact based exoneration that does not require that level of legal analysis. Also new this morning, federal prosecutors are backing away from their bail agreement with m manafort. This after Court Documents show as late as last week, one month after he was charged, maniafort was teaming up to ghost write an op ed about his work in ukraine. Maniaforts partner, a longtime russian colleague who is currently based in russia and assessed to have ties to a russian intelligence service. In the meantime, billy bush is speaking out in his first interview since that New York Times op ed about the now infamous access Hollywood Tape where bush wrote, yes, donald trump, you said that. That is your voice. I was there. You were there. Thats your voice on the tape. If i had thought there was a man detailing a Sexual Assault strategy to me, i would have called the fbi. Not just reported it to my executive producer. Also new this morning, reuters is reporting that special Council Robert mueller has asked germanys largest bank, deutsche bank, to share data on accounts held by President Trump and his family. Thats according to a person close to the matter. Reuters says the bank received a subpoena from mueller several weeks ago to turnover information on certain money and credit transactions. Deutsche bank, which, by the way, has loaned the Trump Organization millions of dollars for Real Estate Ventures would not comment. Hoda and savannah, where. Peter alexander at the white house. Thank you. Turning now to the growing battle over the Trump Administrations plans to reduce the size of two National Monuments in utah nearly two million acres of protected pun land in all you will. It sparked immediate backlash from the west all the way to washington. Nbcs Kristen Dahlgren has the details on this. Hey, kristen. Good morning. Good morning, hoda. Well, the move takes away protections for about half of the Grand StaircaseNational Monument here. About 85 of bears ears. What many say it really does is signal a new approach to federal land management. One long sought by ranchers and energy companies. Reporter this morning President Trump stepping into the middle of a western land battle. Im a real estate developer. When they Start Talking about medicals millions of acres, i say say it again. Thats a lot. Reporter by drastically scaling back the size of two National Monuments in utah. Some people think that the Natural Resources of utah should be controlled by a small handful of very distant bureaucrats located in washington. Guess what, theyre wrong. Reporter Grand Staircase escolante National Monument had been 1. 9 million acres. Mr. Trump split it into three separate monuments, totaling just over a million. Bears ears had been 1. 35 million acres. Its now two smaller monuments totaling just under 229,000 acres. Its the largest rollback of federal Land Protection in u. S. History. The president arguing for fewer restrictions and more development on public lands. Unfortunately, previous administrations have ignored the standard and used the law to lock up hundreds of millions of acres of land and water under strict government control. Reporter while critics say the move threatens archaeological sites and could open up the land for coal mining. We need places like bears ears where the land remains largely untouched. Reporter conservation groups and scientists have already filed a joint legal challenge against the administration. President trump wants to hand our public lands over to private industry to frack, mine, drill, bulldoze, and clear cuts until theres nothing left for this or future generations of americans. Now, the interior department has issued a statement saying that the new boundaries do protect any important science and artifacts. They also point out that the land will remain under federal control. Back to you. All right. Kristen dahlgren. Thank you so much. Al is here. Whats the latest with the wildfire . This is the latest video to come in. This is aerial video from vesee a small part of the 31,000 acres that are under fire right now and are going to continue to burn. Weve got the fire outlook, and it is not good, friends, for the next at least 72 hours. Dry with gusty winds. Its not a cold hot santa ana. Its a cool one. Those wind gusts of 30 to 40 Miles Per Hour, we have red flag warnings up from Santa Clarita all the way down south of san diego. 20 Million People at risk through thursday. Gusts of 40 to 60 Miles Per Hour. They continue today. During the afternoon theyll die down a bit, but then start up again late tomorrow night and on into thursday and so weve got a lot of danger out there as far as those winds are concerned. Sharply Colder Weather behind this front is going to be bringing rain into the region. Were going to take a look at that coming up in the next half hour. In the next 30 seconds, though, were going to get to your forecast. More people shop online for the holidays than ever before. clapping and the United StatesPostal Service delivers more of those purchases to homes than anyone else in the country. because we know, even the smallest things are sometimes the biggest. Good tuesday morning, im meteorologist, kari hall. A chilly start and windy out there with the temperature now in the peninsula at 50 degrees. We dropped down to 36 degrees in the north bay. Some of the valleys are dropping close to freezing as you get ready to head out the door. Look at the high temperatures today. Heading into the low to mid60s. Wont be as windy as the day goes along. Gusty. By the evening, the wind speeds will be 1015 miles an hour. And and thats your latest weather. Guys. Thank you so much. Coming up, awkward controversy. Were going to hear from leangelo ball since the ucla player announced he was going to leave the school in the wake of his arrest in china for shoplifting where. Plus, cooperating with police. New word about the florida teen who went on the run with her High School Soccer coach. First, thi